The New Chat :-)

April 27, 2006

Ignore and Blocking



Answers to Questions

Dj-Slim yes, they should get a message "Captain: The chatter you are writing to is under age, in order to write private you need to be accepted on this chatters buddylist"

And to your question about what settings the average user can put on reciving private and public messages.. Im so happy you asked... check this out...

=======================
FILTER USERS:
=======================

In the list of users in a chat room...

[_] Dont show girls who are
Age From [___] To [___]

[_] Dont show guys who are
Age From [___] To [___]

[_] Unless they are on my Buddylist
[_] Unless they are on my Favoritelist
[_] Unless they have me as their favorite


I dont want to see public messages from...

[_] Girls who are
Age From [___] To [___]

[_] Guys who are
Age From [___] To [___]

[_] Unless they are on my Buddylist
[_] Unless they are on my Favoritelist
[_] Unless they have me as their favorite


I dont want to see private messages from...

[_] Girls who are
Age From [___] To [___]

[_] Guys who are
Age From [___] To [___]

[_] Unless they are on my Buddylist
[_] Unless they are on my Favoritelist
[_] Unless they have me as their favorite


That should satisfy even the most critical chatter :-)


mmjustcooking, auch! you are right, what if they click reject by mistake. Hmm perhaps we should add 2 buttons... [Reject] and [Reject Forever], and then let the reject forever add that person to the block list with the "Block apply to my buddylist" (see further down about blocking)

Favorites, sure you can send them gifts and perhaps a loggy etc, but we will make that expensive so they dont do it too often.

Info about users ignore. Yes I think we should have a button in /UserInfo where you can click and see this users ignores and even remove them.

Good point about the abuse of taking off ignore - putting on ignore etc.. hmmm perhaps we should put a timer on that one. E.g. so you cant remove someone from ignore before 60 minutes later, that should take care of the problem.


Loluss good point, but kids normally dont care. We will warn them when they log on the chat for the first time cause we will monitor everything they do.



The Ignore / Block System

Here are the first screenshots that we have produced...


(click image to enlarge)

Take a look at it. This gives the chatter a lot more oppotunities to costumize his/hers ignore.
And navigators will have a /ForceIgnore where they can put two users on each others ignore lists, and they cant remove these again for X days. I think you will find that one very usefull.

But what other features could we have here? I'm sure you can come up with some.
(ignore gifts from chatter... naaa thats just stupid hehe)

Ohh, and if the user clicks "Report Abusive User" link, then he gets this one...



My idea is that we can have report abusive links everywhere and that the reporting user always must give a reason so the navis can understand what it is he finds abusive and investigate.



Questions to You!

1) What other functions do we need in the Block / Ignore system?

2) The buddylist warning system. On what ages should it warn?
When he is 47 and she is 12, thats an easy one. But what when she is 15 and he is 17?
Where is the limit? I need some help here.



April 25, 2006

The new BuddyList

Answers to Questions

Dj-Slim thanks for great input and a great idea with the ability to also censor the normal fields of a profile. This gave me an idea that if we log every time navis have problems with a specific chatters profile, then we can say "3-strike and you are out" meaning after the 3rd time we will freeze his profile so he cant change it more than once a week and it will be checked by a navi every time.

mmjustbooking no you dont approve profiles unless a profile has been marked "abusive" by another chatter. If you agree and it actually is abusive, then you can censor it to make the user change it and re-approve it once the user has removed the abusive content. It would be too much to approve 6 million profiles :-)

Nexx you are right, we should have a "note" system where a navi can write a short note about that the user needs to remove from his profile, that way other navis can see this note and help out if the censor naiv is not online. And we will have a dedicated profile place on the bridge where the censored chatter can go.

andrew_surrey we will ofcause make it so the countries can change their age from 15 to 16 to 18 or what ever they want.

ok... moving on to... ta-daaaaaa....


The new BuddyList

We are currently working on the design and functionality of our new BuddyList.



With lots of functions like mouse over:



With several new functions if you click on a name



As you can see, it looks pretty much like any messenger, except we got something new.

FAVORITE LIST!

The difference between favorites and buddies is that with a buddy we have the whole Apply and Approve system just like on the chat today.
You can freely add anyone to your favorite list, like girls or guys you really like or admire or what ever reason you might have.

Then the interesting question comes:

"Who has me as their favorite?"

And yes, we also have a feature to show that list.



(dont worry about the 20Z, I will tell you about that later)

And if you accept:




Adding a new buddy.

Here we have user "Arsen", he wish to add "Tinka" to his BuddyList.
First he has to find her:



Once he found her, he will add her
(actually he applies to become her buddy, and she has to accept, just like today)



Meanwhile on "Tinka's" screen, she will get a notification that "Arsen" wants to be added on her BuddyList



If "Tinka" clicks Approve, she and "Arsen" will be buddies

If "Tinka" clicks Reject, she will not be buddies with "Arsen"
Today this can be a problem if....
- Arsen applies
- Tinka rejects
- Arsen applies again
- Tinka rejects again
- Arsen applies again
- Tinka rejects again
- etc...
In order to avoid this, Arsen must wait 1 week after being rejected before he can re-apply to become Tinkas buddy.
If he tried to apply before this time, he will get this error message:




Protecting the kids.

As a new rule on the new chat, an adult cannot in anyway communicate with a child.
This goes for:
- private messages
- logbook messages
- shipsmail messages
- viewing profile, photos, etc..
UNLESS the adult and the child are buddies!

If the adult gets the child on the buddylist or vice versa, then they will be allowed to communicate anyway they want to.
And since they now has a relation in form of a buddy connection, we can watch them CLOSELY!
Also I'm sure that you moms and dads out there would like to have your kids on your BuddyList, no matter if you are being watched or not.

So how are we gonna handle this?... Watch and enjoy :-)

Here we have a man. His chat name is "Hanzo" and he is 47 years old.
He want to add the 12 year old girl "LisaKids" to his BuddyList.

So "Hanzo" finds her via her chat name:



Once he clicks Add, he will get a warning:



By accepting this warning, he knows that she is only 12 and he knows we are watching him.
I believe this would scare most adults who has bad intentions.

If he accepts this warning, "LisaKidz" will receive her notification:



If "LisaKidz" chooses to Approve "Hanzo" as a buddy, she will get this warning:



Again, we make it VERY clear that she is about to add a 47 year old man. We make it clear what this means and that she should only do this if she trusts him. (I'm sure the text could be improved, but that’s up to you guys)



So... what do you think? Isn’t this a totally awesome buddy system? :-)

- Torben & Team

Censoring of Profiles

Answers to questions

Hi everyone.

ticktackboy came up with a great idea! We will add a "This is a adult photo" flag that the chatters must click "on" when they upload nude or otherwise adult photos. That way we can restrict anyone under the age of 16 to see it, even in logbook messages or profiles. And it will not help if they link to others photos, they would still not be able to see it. Thanks for that one ticktackboy :-)

xxpoohxx I must admit that I dont know where the border goes on nipples and stuff. The best way would be to pick a set of 50 photos in the nude/hardcore spectra and then decide what we will and will not accept in the adult albums. Perhaps we could even do a special navigator training exam where we train the photo team in what restrictions they should put on.

mmjustcooking I changed some places to make the photoalbum more user friendly. When we are finished I will post it and ask you all some questions about if you understand it or not.

loluss I dont think it is fun to upload photos to a album if you wont show them to anyone :-)

Phill yes we will make censor of profiles as well, check the next section about profiles. And I think everyone will get ratings on their photos, because it will give rank to rate others :-)



NAVIGATOR RIGHTS IN PROFILES

What functions should navigators have in the profiles?

I have been brainstorming a bit here, but I would like to get your input as well.


Navis should be able to censor a profile for a given user

- The user will recieve a ships mail that he needs to change his profile and remove inapropiate content

- When other users see the profile, it will have a censor sign over the text

- Once the user submits his profile it must be reaproved by a navigator before it will be visable to the public again


Navis should be able to put a "Always approve" on a profile for a given user :

- Every time the user changes the profile, it will need to be approved by a navigator before it will be visable to the public


Navis should be able to freeze a profile for a given user so he cant :

- Delete or Edit it


Navigators should have an option to unlock a users profile

- To see all data that this user might have in his profile

- Edit or Remove sections from a users profile if he dosnt do it himself


What do you all think? Did I miss anything?

April 19, 2006

More Photo Stuff

Photoalbum Restrictions

We finished the page where you can set restrictions on your photoalbum, have a look and tell me what you think:


(click to enlarge)

Please tell me if its understandable with the different settings.
And yes mmgoodlooking, we will make so navis can see these restrictions.


Rating of Photos

We also made the photo rating. I have decided that you can only get photos of yourself rated. There is not much fun rating a pic of a dog or a BMW or a banana. So when a user submits a photo for rating, he will see this popup. Actually the same goes for PhotoChat pics and Profile pics.


(click to enlarge)


Navigator Photo Approval

This means that navigators have 4 jobs when it comes to photos.


  1. Profile Photos. These must be a real photo of the chatter and the navigator can help the user flip/cut/crop/edit the photo in order to make it fit correctly, or simply reject the photo if its not good enough or fake etc.
  2. PhotoChat Photos. Same as today, must be a photo of yourself and navis can crop/cut and approve/reject.
  3. Rated Photos. All the navigator has to do here is to approve or reject them, and like the two others this must also be a photo of the user.
  4. Uploaded Photos. The user can upload eny kinds of photos. All photos will be screened by the navis and deleted if inappropiate.

Nude or Not?
To answer the question from mmjustcooking (hehe), then this is a nude photo, and I think adults should be allowed to use these kinds of photos in their private restricted albums.

I have seen far worse on 50 Cent, Justin and Nelly's music videos on MTV


Supreme Upload Technoligy!
When you work with a team of total geniouses, they sometimes come up with some exceptional ideas. This time we actually managed to make a system where you can upload multiple photos at once, without having to click and choose and click and choose... And the best thing - you dont need to download ANY java applett or active X to do this!!

Check this out!

(click to enlarge)

And whats even better is that you can put names and descriptions on your photos while they are uploading, and you can even watch the progress as they uploads.

Pretty cool eh? :-)


Answers to Questions

xxPoohxx sure, everyone has a mobile phone these days, but if you wanted to cheat with your age, photo and information, would you really give us your mobile phone number? (in UK we can actually check and verify the number with the police if needed)

April 17, 2006

Answers to Questions

Hi Everyone, and thanks for a lot of great feedback.

Public Album
As Duss and others comment, we will allow chatters to have a public album.
Actually they can even put restrictions on their albums like this:

Who can view this Album ?
  [ ] Everyone
  [ ] Only people on my buddylist
  [ ] Only people on my favoritelist
  [ ] Only prople limited by Age
      Age from [___] to [___]
  [ ] Only prople limited by Gender
      [_] Males or [_] Females


Screening of all Photos

All photos will go by the navigators for screening.
Profile and PhotoChat photos are always visible for everyone will not be shown before they are approved.

All other photos will be shown but like Tigg_27 said we will make it very easy for the navis or porn patrol to screen even huge amounts of photos very fast using a single click photo-list system.

So no photo will remain on the chat for long unless a navi has screened it.
(and the chatters have their "Abuse" button if they find bad pics that a navi missed.

And yes to Dj-Slim, we will restrict the navis who are allowed to screen photos. This can be done with the new Navigator Work-Group system, but more about that later.


The age of people

Sure we can never make sure that people are the age they say they are, but we can put on some restrictions that will make it very hard for people to cheat with their age.


One of those things is called the IRL GURANTEE.



This is a indicator of how sure we are that this person is real.
This is how we calculate it:


  • All Chatters start at 0% IRL
  • You gain 10% if you validate your email. (we send you a link that you must click)
  • You gain 10% if you upload a profile photo of yourself and its approved by a navi
  • You gain 20% if 5 or more chatters vouch that they know you for real
  • You gain 25% if you upload a photo with you holding a slip of paper with your chat name on it
  • You gain 25% if you validate your phone number (type in your number and enter the code we send you on SMS)
  • And you gain the last 10% if you attend one of our chat parties :-)
So in order to become 100% IRL you need to be a very well known person, and for these persons (if they are adults) we could allow them a little more freedom in their private photoalbums.

And should a 90% IRL person abuse his rights, then it will take us 2 seconds to ban him and it will take him weeks to become 90% IRL again if ever.


My Team in Armenia

I am very proud of my Armenian Design team, they are all exceptional designers. One of my artists Susanna made this cartoonish collection of the bots and the team and I thought you should have a look at it :-)

Click the photo to Enlarge



From the top, left side
  • Rafik - Artist, also known as Graphic Rafik.
  • Gayane - Mathematician, has the black belt in Excel formulars
  • Gevorg - Lead Developer, the best javascripter in Armenia
  • Ehhh... no comments to that guy with technobabe heheh :-D
  • Goga - Lead Designer and exceptionel animator
  • Haso - Super Web Designer who can read my mind (really scary)
  • Khach - Hardcore Flash Action Scripter who wrote the entire chat client

From the bottom, left side

  • Sergey - Our junior scripter prodege, he is very good at playing Ludo too
  • Tinka - The best female action scripter in Armenia
  • Edik - Our Mafia Artist who loves blond girls
  • Arsen - Supreme Photoshop web designer, also speaks chineese
  • Arthur - PHP and MySql backend Guru
  • Susanna - Our Disney quality Artist
  • Anna - Text writer and coordinator, also known as KGB Anna
  • Gor - HTML CSS expert who can speak in 3 mobile phones at the same time




April 15, 2006

PhotoAlbum Security

Hey Again :-)

mmjustlooking raises a very valid question, so I spend my night and morning brainstorming on what security measures and navigator tools we could make in order to keep the photoalbums porn free, and I came up with a lot of ideas that I want your oppinion about.

Also I got a question. Lets say 2 chatters like to change nude photos and wish to keep it private within their own private little album. As long as the public cant see it and these 2 chatters are adults, should we prevent them from doing that? Im talking nude photos, not hardcore porn.

Anyway, this is what I came up with for the navigator photo security system:

PhotoChat and Profile Approval
- Photochat picture is send to approval and navigator will cut it to fit size
- Profile picture is send to approval and navigator will cut it to fit size
- Each Photo have info
    - Users ChatName
    - No. of already rejected photos
- Each Photo have buttons:
    - Approve
    - Reject
    - Choose reason
    - Freeze user
    - Edit and Cut Photo


Rating pictures is send to approval no cutting needed
- Navigator should be able to mark photos
- Each Photo have info
    - Users ChatName
    - No. of rejected photos
- Each Photo have buttons:
    - Approve
    - Reject


There should be a [Offensive] button on the display photo page
- This reports a offensive photo to the navigators
- The navis should get a long list of all photos that was reported as offensive so they can delete them fast
- If a chatter keeps reporting none offensive photos as being offensive, the navi must
have ability to block this user from doing so

Normal photo screening should be a long list of ALL uploaded photos.
We will post them in their albums, but all photos will be screened
- Buttons/functions:
    - Delete photos
    - Quarenteene photos
    - Tag user
    - Freeze user


User Information
A Navigator should be able to unlock a users photoalbums in order to see what is in it.
- Navigator must give a valid reason to do this
- The Reason and Navi info will be logged and checked by chief, to prevent the navi from abusing this


Navis should be able to freeze photo capabilities for a given user so he cant :
- Delete
    - Photos
    - Albums
- Edit
    - Photos
    - Albums
- Upload new photos
- Submit to approval
    - for profile photo
    - for photochat
    - for rating
- Rate other peoples photos


So... What do you think? Write some comments, ask questions, tell me what I'v missed :-)

- DonTron :-))

April 14, 2006

The new Photoalbum

Hey again everyone, and thanks for some good feedback.

Clefary, we will have a hot or not system but instead of just rating people on a scale from 1 to 10 like everyone else, we decided (with help from some UK navis) that users can rate them according to type:


The point is that you might have someone looking really cute who is not actually hot.

Also we made it so you can choose if you want your photo rated by only women, only men, both or not rated at all, and we will give users an opputunity to comment others photos.



(click to enlarge)


mmjustlooking, I thought the same thing. A longer list that shows more photos at once. Unfortunately we would have to put an ugly banner in there also, but banners still pays the rent.


(click to enlarge)


schilly_as_juventas, I just talked to the backend guys, and we will change it to 20 chars in a username. I hope that will accomodate all names from the old chat. Do anyone know any chatters with names longer as "schilly_as_juventas" ?



windylindy, I defenately want to do some user defined restrictions. In this new one you can have multiple albums, so how about that we allow users to decide if the album is public for everyone, if its public but only for a certant age group or gender or if its private only for your buddies to see. That page havnt been finished yet, but this one have...

PHOTOALBUM FRONT PAGE

Ouuu it took a looong time to get this one just right, but I feel we did a pretty good job. Click on the image and have a look - see if you understand what functions you get from clicking the different buttons. Please write comments if there are things missing or things you dont understand.


(click to enlarge)

windylindy, also we will have a very advanced photo editor with tons of editing features (almost like a little photoshop). This will include the Crop function as well. We did some prototyping on it that you can see here:

(click to enlarge)


.......and windylindy, I found a photo of your dad :-)




So everyone, once again, look at the screenshots - tell me what you think.

Thanks,
- DonTron / Torben

April 13, 2006

Welcome to the New Chat !



Hi everyone :)

My name is Torben Rudgaard (mostly known as DonTron or TorbenDK on the chats) and I am the inventor of Jubii/Lycos/Yahoo chat and the creative director of Lycos Entertainment.

I'm currently living in Armenia (Yerevan, the capital) where I have a team of designers and developers who are working day and night on a whole new chat. Armenia is a great place to live with only 10% tax, cheap prices and very friendly and talented Armenian people.

We just launched the first small beta of the new chat. It is supposed to go online in Denmark this summer, but since my team here in Armenia only speaks English (and Russian and Armenian), we had to do the beta in English. So we might as well invite all you chatters and navis to join the beta test and come with your input :)

You can find the beta chat here http://betachat.jubii.dk/

The reason for this blog is that I want to share my ideas with you chatters and navigators of Europe, so I can get all your ideas and valuable input, making this new version the best chat in the world!

So please write down all the comments and ideas you might have here, and look back often cause I plan to update this blog once a week.

The Photoalbum

To start off this blog, let me introduce you to the new photoalbum.


(Photoalbum frontpage - click to enlarge)

We are currently in the process of designing it, but its pretty hard to get it just right, so we would very much like your input on these things.

Question #1: What do you want in the new photoalbum?

Are there things that you always wanted in a photoalbum? Any features and functions that you are missing today? Here is your chance to get them in the new chat.

Please post some comments and let me hear what you want :-)


(Photoalbum list of photos - click to enlarge)